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Wi-Fi stops working after Mobile Hotspot is turned OFF

When the Mobile Hotspot app on my Note 4 is turned on, the device's Wi-Fi is disabled, which is required. Later, when I turn the Mobile Hotspot off, Wi-Fi is re-enabled, and connects to known wi-fi networks, but I have no connectivity for any apps. Even turning off Wi-Fi and then turning it back on again does not resolve the problem. If I turn off Wi-Fi, the cellular connection still works. The only fix for this is to turn the phone off entirely and turn it back on (or restart). Only then do Wi-Fi connections start working again.

This does not happen 100% of the time. Sometimes wi-fi works fine after the hotspot is turned off. But I estimate this occurs more than 50% of the time I turn off the hotspot. I use the Mobile Hotspot app on the Note 4 at least twice daily, so this occurs frustratingly often.

The Wi-Fi routers themselves are fine, as this occurs both at home and at work (two different networks). Plus, restarting the phone always makes the wi-fi start working again, with the same connections.

This has not been a problem when I first bought the phone late last year. It just started happening after a recent software update within the last two months.

Some hardware and software stats:

Model Number: SM-N910V

Android version: 5.0.1

Kernel version: 3.10.40

Build number: LRX22C.N910VVRU2BOG5

Hardware version: N910V.05

Comments

Verizon_Support

Hello xroads42,

Thank you so much for all of your information. This is something we need to get resolved. Frustration is never something that we want to see in the same sentence as your phone. You mention that when youy are on wifi, you are not able to get any apps on the phone to work. Do you get any specific error when you try to open them? Are you able to get on the web just fine?

AliciaS_VZW
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport
If my response answered your question please click the �Correct Answer� button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

xroads42

Thanks for the quick reply. The web browser and any native apps also can't connect to the network. They receive the generic "no connection" type messages, as though I was completely out of coverage. I don't recall the exact error messages, but I can provide them the next time it happens if you'd like.

Verizon_Support

This is quite the mystery and I'm here to get this resolved. If you could actually notate the exact error message when it does come up next time, that would be great. Gives us more to go by at times. Have you been able to completely delete the wifi connection from the phone and then readd it to see if that helps?

Here's how to remove the wifi: http://vz.to/1hthJxl

Here's how to readd the wifi: http://vz.to/1KyamLx

bcsmith488

Mobile Hotspots strictly use cellular data, not Wi-Fi. So, naturally, when you activate Mobile Hotspot, it automatically turns off your Wi-Fi and uses your cellular data. To my knowledge, this is not something that you can control. In fact, having Wi-Fi around kind of defeats the purpose of having a Mobile Hotspot...

As far as why you wouldn't be getting internet connection despite being connected to known Wi-Fi networks after turning off your Mobile Hotspot, I do not know.

xroads42

Hi Alicia,

So, I'm in this state right now, after having used the Mobile Hotspot this morning.

The Internet app (native mobile web browser) gives this message:

"This web page is not available"

And then has a "More" button. When clicked, it expands the error with the following:

"The server at www.google.com can't be found, because the DNS lookup failed. DNS is..." I know what DNS is ;-)

It then offers the following solutions:

"Check your Internet connection" - Check cables, reboot routers, etc. This is not a problem, since resetting the phone makes everything work again. And again, this is happening both at my home and at work, which is a large IT company, no problems with their wifi setup.

"Check your DNS settings" - I can't find a place to check this on the phone. Can you direct me to where this might be located?

"Allow Internet to access the network in your firewall or antivirus settings" (Not an issue)

"If you use a proxy server..." (I don't)

"Error code: ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED"

The Google Chrome browser gives this error, "DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NO_INTERNET"

Facebook just says "Error loading News Feed" with no underlying error code. Ot6her apps give similar messages.

So my guess is that somehow Wi-Fi DNS becomes disabled/corrupted after turning the mobile hotspot off.

Turning wifi off, then on again, doesn't resolve the issue, though I can still use the 4G VZW connection just fine while wifi is turned off.

As to your suggestion about removing and re-adding the wifi hotspot, this did not work, either. Once again, I was able to sue teh 4G connection while not connected to wi-fi, then after adding the wi-fi connection back (authenticated, received an IP Address, and connected), I received the same errors from the web browser and apps.

I think it's something with the entire wi-fi service on the phone itself that gets corrupted after using the Mobile Hotspot. This seems supported by the fact that when I turn the entire phone off and on again, wi-fi starts working again.

Let me know if you'd like me try anything else the next time I get into this situation.

Thanks,

Scott

Jaybird71

I have been having the EXACT same problem for months now. The only thing that fixes it is a shutdown / restart of the phone. Very frustrating!

xroads42

bcsmith488

I haven't tried disconnecting devices connected to my phone's Mobile Hotspot before turning it off. I'll give that a try. Interesting test.

I did try one thing that has worked consistently so far:

Turn off wi-fi on the phone manually, then turn Mobile Hotspot On.

When done with Hotspot, turn it Off, then manually turn the phone's Wi-Fi back on.

If I follow these steps, I haven't run into the problem, though I've only done it a few times so far.

This leads me to believe it's a bug in the phone software itself, either in the Mobile Hotspot app, or in its interaction with turning the phone's wi-fi on and off.

Verizon_Support

Jaybird71,

We want you to be able to use your device and be able to connect to wifi after using mobile hotspot. When did this start happening? What is the software version do you have on the phone?
ZangY_VZW
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport
If my response answered your question please click the �Correct Answer� button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

bcsmith488

In that case, it could be a bug in the Notification Panel software.

When turning WiFi and Hotspot on and off, do you usually use the drop down

Notification Panel to do so?

xroads42

bcsmith488

No, I don't use the Notification panel for Mobile Hotspot. I actually launch the Mobile Hotspot app, then tap the toggle in the upper right On or Off.

I usually do turn Wi-Fi on or off from the notification panel, and that has worked fine every time.

Verizon_Support

xroads42,

This has to be so frustrating that this issue is still not resolved. We're here to see what we can do to get this fixed. We know that sometimes after a software update things can change features on the phone & this could be one of the changes. Have you tried to do a factory data reset to the phone?

rforeman

I was having this same problem. After using the hot spot when away from home. When I get home and turn off the hot spot and turn on the wifi it connects to my router but if I try to go to google play I get "Check your connection and try again". If I reboot the phone then it works fine till I use the hot spot again.

I think I have pin pointed the problem. I went in and disabled the CRAP Verizon Support & Protection software and I am no longer having the problem. Only tried a few times but so far I have turned on and off the hot spot 3 times, and after turning off the hot spot and turning on the wifi I have been able to surf the web and everything with no problems yet. I am going to try a few more test over the next few days but I think the CRAP Verizon Support & Protection software is the problem. It is powered by Mcafee which is the WORST software on the planet.

If you give this a try please post your results.

rforeman

rforeman wrote:

I think I have pin pointed the problem. I went in and disabled the CRAP Verizon Support & Protection software and I am no longer having the problem. Only tried a few times but so far I have turned on and off the hot spot 3 times, and after turning off the hot spot and turning on the wifi I have been able to surf the web and everything with no problems yet. I am going to try a few more test over the next few days but I think the CRAP Verizon Support & Protection software is the problem. It is powered by Mcafee which is the WORST software on the planet.

If you give this a try please post your results.

UPDATE:

After testing the above for the last 4 or 5 days. The Verizon Support & Protection software is the problem. If I enable it my WiFi stops working after using the hotspot, With Verizon Support & Protection software disabled I can use the hotspot all day long, and when I get home I turn off the hotspot and it connects up to my WiFi and I have no connection issues. With Verizon Support & Protection software enabled the only way my WiFi works after using the hotspot is to reboot the phone.

Hope this will helps.

Ann154

I would suggest sending an email to the developers of the application through the email address posted on the Play Store listing detailing the issue and what you have done to correct it so the developers can fix the code in the application.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.asurion.android.verizon.vms

rforeman

Thanks. I will do that. I thought I would post it here also to help others as it it is a work around till it gets corrected in the app.

mrfred

This appears to be working for me as well. Odd thing though is that I never activated that software. Apparently it was still causing issues. Another interesting tidbit is that my wife's GN4 never had this issue.

mrfred

After a few weeks of using the hotspot feature, I am once again loosing wifi connectivity after disabling the hotspot even though I have the Verizon Support app disabled. Oh well. I guess I can only hope that when 5.1.1 or 6.0 arrive, this issue will be resolved.

Anthonyd1986

I am having the same issue, u have the Galaxy s5, and I use my hotspot for work everyday, when I come home I have to reboot my phone to use wifi.

Sm-g900v

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